Clutch mechanism



3 Sheets-Sheet l CLUTCH MECHANISM INVENTOR illiamflfimitfi'n W. A. SMITH. SR

HIS ATTORNEY.

Filed June 16, 1937 Jan. 3, 1939.

. \w agas n Jan. 3, 1939. V .w. A: SMITH. SR 2,142,529

CLUTCH MECHANISM Filed June 16, 1937 s Shets-Sheet 2 Bd-JT lNVENTR H s ATTORNEY.

' Jan. 3, 1939. w. A. SMITH, 5R

7 CLUTCH MECHANISM 5 Sheets-Sheet 3 Filed June 16, 1937 2 mlligl wi T ifiijl H I S ATTORN EY' Patented Jan. 3, 1939 i UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE CLUTCH MECHANISM William A. Smith, Sr., Athens, Pa., assignor to Ingersoll-Rand Company, Jersey City, N. J a corporation of New Jersey Application June 16, 1937, Serial No. 148,473

1 Claim. (Cl. 19287) This invention relates to rock drills, and more ing 36 which, in the arrangement shown, is the particularly to a clutch mechanism for rock chuck element that interlockingly engages the drills embodying rotation mechanism for shift- Working implement. ing the working implement and feeding mecha- In the rearward end of the cylinder 25 is an :15 nism for actuating the rock drill relatively to its enlarged recess 31 to accommodate valve meohasupport. nism 38 of which only the chest is shown. The One object of the invention is to enable the valve mechanism may be of any well known type clutch to be actuated quickly and positively into and the rock drill may be provided with the the engaging and releasing positions. usual ports and passages (not shown) controlled Other objects will be in part obvious and in by the valve mechanism to distribute pressure 0 part pointed out hereinafter. fluid to the ends of the piston chamber for actu- In the drawings accompanying this specificaating the piston 21. tion and in which similar reference numerals The recess 31 also contains a uni-directional refer to similar parts, rotary motor 39 shown as being of the vane type Figure 1 is a longitudinal view, partly in secand comprising a casing 40 which may be aifixed 5 tion, of a rock drilling mechanism constructed to the cylinder 25in any convenient manner. The in accordance with the practice of the invention, casing 46 is bored to provide a piston chamber Figures 2 and 3 are transverse views taken 4| wherein is arranged a rotor 42 carrying the through Figure 1 on the lines 2-'2 and 3-3, revanes 43 against which pressure fluid acts. for

spectively, driving the rotor. The pressure fluid employed 20 Figure 4 is a transverse view taken through for this purpose is conveyed to the chamber 4| Figure 3 on the line 4--4, by a passage 44 in the casing 40 and ports 45 Figure 5 is an enlarged view, similar to Figure affording communication between the passage 44 1, showing the driving and reversing devices for and the chamber 4|. The exhaust fluid may the feeding apparatus of the rock drill, pass from the chamber 4| through an exhaust 25 Figure 6 is a transverse view taken through port 46 in the casing 40 and the cylinder 25. Figure 1 on the line 66, and Preferably the passage 44 is extended to the Figure '7 is a plan view in section, taken through valve mechanism to also convey thereto the pres-' Figure 1 on the line 1---'|. sure fluid employed for actuating the hammer Referring more particularly to the drawings, piston 21. 30 20 designates a rock drilling mechanism compris- The rotor 42 is mounted upon and keyed to a ing a rock drill 2| and a shell 22 to guide the shaft 41 extending beyond the ends of the casrock drill and accordingly has a pair of guideing 40 and into anti-friction bearings 48 carried ways 23 to slidably receive ribs 24 carried by the by plates 49 and 50 forming closures for the front casing parts of the rock drill 2|. and rear ends of the chamber 4|, respectively. 35

The rock drill 2| comprises the usual cylinder In addition to the functions stated the plate 25 having a piston chamber 26 to accommodate 50 also serves as a seat for a back head 5| formareciprocatory hammer piston. 21 which controls ing the rea Casing p Of e c drill a free exhaust port 28 and has a reduced cylinand which may be secured to the cylinder 25 by drical stem 29 to deliver blows against a hollow side rods 52, as may also be the front head 33. 40 working implement so for actuating it into the In a c rda w the p a t of the invenwork. tion the motor 39 serves to impart rotary move- The peripheral surface of the stem 29 is unment to the chuck mechanism 34 and also to broken and the stem is guided by a closure 3| eifect advancing and retractive movement of the inserted into the front end of the cylinder 25. rock drill with resp t e menu. The shaft 45 The closure 3| has an external flange 32 which 1 of the motor accordingly carries a pinion 53 abuts the front end of the cylinder 25 and serves which mesheswith a gear 54 of a transmission as a seat for an end of a front head 33 containshaft 55 mounted in anti-friction bearings 56 ing rotary chuck mechanism 34 which interand 51 seated in the plate and the back head 50 lockingly engages the working implement 30, in 5|, respectively. Intermediate the gear 54 and 50 a well known manner, to prevent relative rotary the bearing 51 is a pinion 58 which, like the gear movement between the two. 54, may be an integral part of the shaft and The chuck mechanism 34 preferably comprises meshes with a gear 59 carried by a shaft 60 exa chuck which bears directly against the inner tending longitudinally of the rock drill and car- 5 surface ofthe front head Y33 and contains a bush rying, at its front end, a pinion 6| which meshes 55' with a gear 62 on the periphery of the chuck 35.

The power employed for effecting actuation of the rock drill relatively to the shell 22 is also transmitted through the shaft 55 which, accordingly, has a pinion 63 rearwardly of the bearing 51 and extending into a chamber 64 in the back head 5| The chamber 64 preferably lies coaxially with the piston chamber 26 and contains a pair of driving members 65 and 66 which are supported by a stationary shaft 61 mounted in the back head 5|.

The driving members 65 and 66 are freely rotatable with respect to each other and with respect to the shaft 61. As a preferred form of construction the driving member 66 is clamped, as by means of a nut 68, to a sleeve 69 disposed rotatably upon the shaft 61 and carrying at its opposite end a gear 10 which meshes with the pinion 63, and on the periphery of the sleeve 69, adjacent the gear 10, is an anti-friction bearing 1I upon which is mounted the driving member 65.

The driving member 65 lies on one side of the anti-friction bearing H to confront the driving member 86. It has a skirt 12 containing the anti-friction bearing H and extends into the same transverse plane as the gear 10, and on the inner surface of the skirt 12 are gear teeth 13 which mesh constantly with the pinion 63. An additional bearing surface is provided for the driving member 65 by an integral sleeve 14 encircling the portion of the sleeve 69 lying between the driving members 65 and 66.

Mounted upon the sleeve 14, and whereon it is freely rotatable, is an idler sprocket 15 which is capable of a slight degree of movement longitudinally of the sleeve 14 and engages a chain 16 which is also trained over sprocket teeth 11 carried by a feed nut 18. The feed nut is journaled in a lug 19 on the back head 5i. It is freely rotatable in the lug 19 and is in threaded engagement with a feed screw 80 extending therethrough and longitudinally of the shell 22 whereby it is supported.

Normally, the feed screw 80 remains stationary and may be held thus by a latch 8| having a detent 82 to engage notches 83 in a flange 84 near the rear end of the feed screw. The latch is maintained in looking engagement with the feed screw by a spring 85, and on the rearward extremity of the feed screw is the usual crank 86 whereby the feed screw may be manually rotated if desired.

In the confronting portions of the driving members 65 and 66 are piston chambers 81 and 88, respectively, to receive pistons 89 and 90 carried by the sprocket 15 and to which they may be aflixed in any suitable manner. The outermost portions of the pistons 89 and 90 constitute friction surfaces 9I adapted to engage friction disks 92 arranged in the bottoms of the piston chambers 81 and 88.

To the end that the sprocket wheel may be conveniently actuated into and held in frictional engagement with the friction disks 92 to cause the sprocket wheel and, therefore, the feed nut 18 to be rotated in one direction or the other by either the driving member 65 or the member 66, depending upon the direction in which it is desired to actuate the rock drill relatively to the shell, the ends of the pistons 89 and 90 adjacent the friction disks 92 constitute pressure surfaces 93 and 94, respectively, which are selectively subjected to pressure fluid for shifting the sprocket wheel 15. The pressure fluid employed for this purpose is valved to the piston chambers 81 and 88 by a manually operable valve 95 in the back head 5|.

The valve 95 is of the rotary type, having a central chamber 96 which is in constant communication with the pressure fluid supply conduit 91 through a passage 98 in the back head. In the wall of the valve 95 is a pair of ports 99 and I which are spaced along the length of the valve 95 and arranged angularly with respect to each other. Thus, in one position of the valve 95 the port I00 registers with a supply passage IOI extending through the back head, the shaft 61 and the sleeves 69 and 14 and opening into the piston chamber 81, and in another position of the valve 95 the port I00 is blanked off and the port 99 registers with a supply passage I02 arranged in the same elements as the passage IOI and opening into the piston chamber 88.

In the portion of the back head I encasing the valve 95 is a pair of exhaust ports I01 and I08 which may respectively be communicated with the passages IOI and I02 by partly-annular grooves I09 and I I 0 in the periphery of the valve 95. The grooves I09 and H0 are so arranged that they may be placed either singly or simultaneously in communication with the ports which they control. That is to say, when the valve 95 is in position to admit pressure fluid into the passage IOI the groove III] will establish communication between the passage I02 and the exhaust port I08. Similarly, when the port 99 is in registry with the passage I02 the groove I09 will be in position to effect communication between the passage IOI and the exhaust port I01. The grooves I09 and IIO are, moreover, so proportioned that they have portions lying in the same longitudinal plane. Thus, the valve may be positioned to vent both piston chambers 81' and 88 to the atmosphere.

The valve 95 is located in the back head and preferably adjacent the main throttle valve I03 whereby the admission of pressure fluid from the supply conduit 91 to the motor 39 and the valve mechanism 38 is controlled. The back head 5|, moreover, serves as a housing for a rotary valve I04 which controls the admission of cleansing liquid to a water tube I05 extending coaxially through the rock drill for supplying cleansing fluid to the working implement to flush the cuttings from the hole being drilled. The water tube I05 may be of a well known type and is secured in position by a plug I06 threaded into the rearmost end of the back head 5|.

As a first step in the operation of the device, and assuming that it be intended to move the rock drill toward the work to actuate the working implement 30 thereinto, the throttle valve I03 is opened to admit pressure fluid to the passage 44 and thus to the motor 39 and the valve mechanism 38. The valve mechanism 38 will then operate to distribute pressure fluid to the ends of the piston chamber 26 for actuating the piston 21 against the working implement 30. At the same time the motor 39 is set in operation and its movement is transmitted through the transmission shaft 55 and the shaft 60 to the chuck mechanism 34 for shifting the cutting bit (not shown) of the working implement 30 to new positions between the blows of the hammer piston.

Simultaneously with or immediately following the starting of the motor 39 and the percussive element of the drill the valve 95 is rotated to the position shown in Figures 5 and '7 in which the port I00 registers with the supply passage IOI. Pressure fluid then flows through these channels into the piston chamber 81 and, acting against the pressure surface 93 of the piston 89, shifts the sprocket 15 rearwardly and presses the pressure surface 94 into frictional engagement with the adjacent friction disk 92 carried by the driving member 66. The sprocket 15 is held in fric tional engagement with the driving member by the pressure fluid acting against the piston 88 and will rotate with the driving member 68.

The rotary movement of the sprocket 15 is transmitted by the chain 18 to the feed nut 18 which will then be rotated relatively to the feed screw so that the rock drill 2| will be gradually advanced along the shell 22 toward the work in accordance with the degree of penetration of the working implement thereinto. In this way the percussive element of the rock drill will be constantly maintained in the correct operative relationship with the working implement.

After the working implement 30 has penetrated the work to the limit of its extent the valve 95 is rotated to a position in which the port I08 is moved out of registry with the passage NH and the port 99 registers with the passage I02. Pressure fluid is then admitted into the piston chamber 88 and acts against the pressure surface 94 to shift the sprocket l5 forwardly and press the pressure surface 93 against the adjacent friction disk 92. rotates in a direction opposite to that of the driving member 86 the direction of rotation of the sprocket 15 will be reversed as will also be that of the feed nut 18. Thus, during the subsequent operation of the motor 39 the movement of the feed nut will cause the rock drill to be moved rearwardly along the shell 22 to its starting position.

Whenever it is desired to impart only slight advancing or retracting movement to the rock drill the valve 95 may be rotated to admit only a small amount of pressure fluid into the piston chambers 81 or 88. Such pressure fluid will press the sprocket 15 only lightly against a friction disk so that there may be a degree of slippage Inasmuch as the driving member 65' between the friction disk and the sprocket. In consequence, the feed nut will be rotated slowly and the movement of the rock drill relatively to the shell will be correspondingly slow. In the event that it be desired to discontinue movement of the rock drill with respect to the shell the valve 95 is shifted to a neutral position in which both piston chambers 81 and 88 are cut off from the source of pressure fluid supply. The sprocket 15 may then assume a neutral position and will be unaffected by the movement of the adjacent rotary parts.

Normally, the feed screw will remain stationary and will be held thus by the latch 8!. There may be occasions, however, when it may be desirable or advantageous to shift the rock drill along the shall without operating the rotary and percussive elements. In such event the latch 8| may be released from the notches 83 and the feed screw may be then rotated by means of the crank 86. Similarly, when the rotary motor 39 is operating and it may be desired to momentarily nullify, wholly or in part, its feeding movement the feed screw may be rotated in a direction opposite to that in which the feed nut rotates, either fast or slowly depending upon the feeding movement required. In like manner, the feed screw may be rotated in the same direction as the feed nut to expedite the movement of the rock drill along the shell.

I claim:

Clutch mechanism, comprising a pair of driving members rotating in opposite directions and each member having a piston chamber, a driven member having pistons extending slidably into the piston chambers and forming closures therefor, pressure surfaces on the pistons, friction members in the piston chambers carried by the driving members, and means for selectively subjecting a pressure surface to pressure fluid to press the other pressure surface into engagement with a friction member.

WILLIAM A. SMITH, SR. 

